116 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



localities, &c., with a view to ascertain what are really and truly British captures, 

 as far as possible. A great deal depends on the veracity of the narrator ; and I 

 have endeavoured to find out, pro and con, the respectability and dependence to be 

 placed on them. Some are careless, and apt to make mistakes as to names, &c. ; 

 some are fond of notoriety, and of seeing their names in print, &c. The late Mr. 

 Sparshall, of Norwich, had a dragon-fly, which he assured me he took himself near 

 Norwich. The Baron De Selys tells me that must be a mistake, as it is not even 

 European. And, again, of the Arcturus Sparshalli, figured by Mr. Curtis, he gave 

 the date and locality, &c. M. Boisduval suspected it was American ; but the 

 British Museum now have a pair from Australia ! Some are too credulous and 

 others too sceptical, especially in London ; and I know even there a little variance 

 in opinion, especially when they happen to possess a specimen which before they 

 rather doubted. The capture of A. Belia certainly surprised me ; but Weaver 

 assured me he is quite certain he made no mistake about M. Dia, and that at the 

 time he took them he never had a foreign species. Sir Patrick Walker told me 

 that he took the H. ligea (of which he had one specimen, and now belongs to 

 Samuel Stevens, F.L.S., and two he gave to the late J. F. Stephens, and now in 

 British Museum) near Brodick Castle, in the Isle of Arran, and also H. blandina, 

 when there grouse- shooting. This is now doubted by some, and one person has 

 written to me saying, that l if Sir P. Walker was now alive, and told him so, he 

 would contradict him to his face!' I had hopes entomologists, in general, were a more 

 respectable body. P. Hampstediensis of Petiver is evidently a mistake ! Petiver 

 himself must have misunderstood the statement respecting it ; which is easy to 

 suppose arose from Dr. Solander living at Hampstead after his return with Sir 

 Joseph Banks, &c. I ventured a suggestion, that he might have shown his speci- 

 men to Albin and Petiver, and said he took it in the Isle of Amsterdam ; and that 

 from the similar names arose the mistake. It and many others that are well 

 ascertained, like this, to be erroneous, should be expunged. I have V. Huntera which 

 Captain Blomer took in Wales ; Mrs. Blomer also told me she remembered his 

 having taken it, and was nearly throwing it away as V. cardui. He has been 

 doubted also by some ! I have stated that I believed I once saw P. podalirius 

 alive in Cambridgeshire, settled on some rushes, facing the rising sun, with ' its 

 wings half expanded.' Some person has stated that I must be mistaken ; for I 

 could not have known P. podalirius from P. machaon, with ' its wings closed.'' I 

 fancy, however, on the contrary, that I should know it even with ' its wings closed' 

 from Machaon, which is a very old acquaintance of mine, both in this part and also 

 in other parts of England. There are other authorities, two of which I have, 

 written by their captors. But some deny the whole, and say that one is P. 

 Feisthamilii, a native of Spain, &c. Now, that is given in the Stettin Catalogue as a 

 variety of P. alexanor, and not of Podalirius, although I am aware Boisduval, &c., 

 give it as the last. It would certainly be more satisfactory to have other evidence, 

 though Sphinx nerii has been taken in several instances, and I heard of two at 

 Sherborne, but have not seen either ! 



,J. C. DALE," 



Mr. Haliday showed several Hemipterous insects, with parasites attached, of a 

 compressed spheroidal or somewhat reniform figure, embossed with bands of zig-zag 

 sculpture, and affixed by one of the lobes of the sinus, which he had observed to 

 terminate in connivent valves, somewhat like the operculum of a Bulanus. These 

 bodies are usually attached to the under side, between the head and prothorax of 

 the insect, if of moderate size, as the species of Evacanthus, one of which, the 

 craticula of Curtis, common among rushes, is particularly infested by them. To 

 smaller insects, as Typhlocyba, Delphax, &c., they are commonly affixed between 

 the segments of the abdomen, under the elytra and wings in winged individuals. 

 They appear to grow in size, and the larger ones have been observed to split open 

 along the convex face, disclosing a naked apod grub, with horny head, furnished 

 with jaws and jointed appendages. He had not succeeded in tracing their further 

 development ; but some observations made on their structure, led him to conjecture 

 that they might be larvae of Diptera, especially the circumstance that the four 

 malpighian vessels were united, two and two, into a pair of common ducts before 



